Alberto Manguel is a writer, translator, editor and critic, but more importantly, he is reader and a lover of books. Although Alberto Manguel was born in Buenos Aires in 1948, he spent his childhood in Israel and his adolescence in Argentina. While attending the Colegio Nacional de Buenos Aires, he worked in a bookstore where he met the blind Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges, who asked Manguel to read aloud to him from 1964 to 1968, a relationship that would prove to pivotal for Manguel. Aft...
More about Alberto Manguel

Ian Telfer has been Chairman of Goldcorp since 2006 and was Chief Executive Officer of Goldcorp and its predecessor Wheaton River Minerals from 2001 to 2006. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, he transformed the company into one of the world’s largest gold mining companies. He also served as Chairman of the World Gold Council from 2009-2013.. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Canada, and member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and Institut...
More about Ian Telfer

After receiving her doctorate in sociology from the University of Toronto in 1974, Danielle Juteau taught at the University of Ottawa, where she received the Excellence in Teaching Award and taught the first women’s studies course. As a pioneer in the now undisputed field of ethnic studies, both in Canada and internationally, she has also contributed to building knowledge about Francophone minority communities in Canada, Franco-Ontarians, Canadian pluralism and gender relations. She joined the...
More about Danielle Juteau

As a member of a well-known family of intellectuals who have historic ties to Laval University, Jean-Marie De Koninck first attended that institution before earning a master’s degree and doctorate from Temple University in Philadelphia. In 1972, he returned to Laval University to take up a faculty position in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, where he not only made impressive scientific contributions, but also participated in sports and social causes. His work as a professor has al...
More about Jean-Marie De Koninck

A graduate of the University of Montreal and the University of London, Robert Décary practiced law in Montreal and then in Gatineau for two decades while serving in the federal public service, including as special assistant to the Secretary of State for External Affairs and as co-director of research for the Task Force on Canadian Unity (Pepin-Robarts report). During the 1980s, he provided political and legal analyses for influential Quebec newspapers Le Devoir and La Presse, as well as on tel...
More about The Honorable Robert Décary

Louise Wendling is a native of Montreal who graduated from the University of Montreal with a BA in English literature. She began her career in the public service before making the leap to the private sector in 1976 at The Hudson’s Bay Company.In 1986, she and two other Hudson’s Bay colleagues founded Price Club, where she developed and implemented the wholesale sales concept and culture. Louise Wendling began as the VP Merchandizing; less than six years later, she was promoted to Senior VP for ...
More about Louise Wendling

As Chief Anchor and Senior Editor of CTV NEWS WITH LISA LAFLAMME since 2011, Lisa LaFlamme leads the country’s number one newscast. An accomplished journalist, LaFlamme quickly cemented her role as the face of news in Canada, winning highest honours at the 2014 Canadian Screen Awards, with recognition for both Best National News Anchor and Best National Newscast. In addition, since becoming an anchor, LaFlamme has won the prestigious Radio-Television News Directors Association Bert Cannings Awa...
More about Lisa LaFlamme

Dr. Gilles Julien’s mission is to enable children from vulnerable backgrounds to grow and develop their potential. He is a visionary leader who has created a preventive approach, community social pediatrics, which ensures that all children’s rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child are respected. Over the years, he has mobilized people in low-income Montreal neighbourhoods by establishing two social pediatrics centres, Assistance d’enfants en difficulté, in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, ...
More about Gilles Julien

Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur born in Hubli, Karnataka, India. He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, an MEng in Electrical Engineering from the University of New Brunswick, and PhD in Data Communications from Queens University, Kingston.Although an engineer by training, he is most often considered a “serial entrepreneur”, and has pursued an entrepreneurial career for the past three decades. He is the foun...
More about Gururaj Deshpande

Dr. Jean-Pierre Changeux is Professor Emeritus at the Collège de France and at the Department of Neurosciences at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He is one of the world’s leading molecular biologists and scientific theoreticians, and a pioneer of modern molecular pharmacology and neuroscience. Although he is known for his research in several fields, his seminal work has been on the structure and function of allosteric proteins, on isolating and determining the structure of the first neurotransm...
More about Jean-Pierre Changeux